You may have noticed I have been away for a little while. It’s due to an unintentional two month break away from the blog partly for computer and technical issues that have been an absolute pain, and partly because I had to sort my life out a little bit, meaning writing for the blog took a back seat. I said I was going to write a happy and positive post monthly and I guess I really didn’t consider just how much time it would take to research, write and make sure everything had all the proper citations and links. However, I am determined to keep it up and so because I missed April and I should be posting May’s about now I have a combined post with fifteen things to be happy and positive about for April and May. There’s a lot to get through, so let’s get started:

SOMETHING JOYOUS: We constantly read such horrific news stories that it is so wonderful every now and again to have something shared on the internet that brings such joy and puts a smile on our faces. I came across an article highlighting photographs by Christian Vieler of dogs trying to catch a treat. They’re hilarious because they are captured whilst the treat is in mid-air and the dog is mid-catch. Vieler has been taking these photos since 2013. It was originally to test his new portable flash, and the original model was his Labrador retriever Lotte. However, it has since become its own photo series and I am surprised this is the first time people seem to be really talking about it. Vieler has already published a book called ‘Treat’ containing many of his photographs and another is in the works. They’re honestly some of the funniest photos I’ve seen, and of course it’s dogs so what more could you want?Screenshot from Christian Vieler website

FOOD: After a trial scheme in August, Lidl are now selling ‘Too good to waste’ boxes in England, Scotland and Wales (totalling 760 stores) in a bid to reduce food waste by 25% in 2020. Each box has approximately 5kg of fruit and veg and costs just £1.50. They are available in the store from opening until midday, then any boxes left over are given to local food banks and other charitable causes. In trial scheme last August, the chain managed to save 250 tonnes of fruit and vegetables going to waste with the sales of 50,000 boxes. This is such a brilliant scheme that I think every store should adopt.An example of the boxes. Photo taken from Country Living

BUCKET LIST: Louis Tomlinson, singer and former member of One Direction, share a heart-warming video back in April. The video was released for his new single “Two of Us”. In the video he meets 83-year-old Richard Green who lost his wife in the same year Tomlinson lost his mother. The video begins with the two men talking about life and loss and then goes on to show Green mentioning his list of ‘Bucket List’ adventures. Tomlinson says he will help him tick a number of boxes off his list and together they go drive race cars, ride a roller coaster and ends with Green fulfilling one of his ultimate goals; performing on stage to live audience (which just happens to be at one of Tomlinson’s arena shows). You’ll cry like a baby watching it, but it will also leave you wanting to hug your loved ones and start writing your own bucket list!Screenshot from the music video Two of Us which can be found on Youtube.

SCIENCE: This April, astronomers took the first ever image of a black whole. It is 500 million trillion kilometres away and is 40 billion kilometres across (3 million times the size of Earth). It has become known as a monster and took “a network of eight telescopes across the world” to photograph it. (BBC, 10th April 2019) What is even more inspiring, is that the “development of a computer program that made the image possible” was led by Katie Bouman, a 29-year-old computer scientist who graduated from MIT three years ago. (BBC, 11th April 2019) It was here she began making the algorithm that would eventually make photographing this black hole possible. Whilst this is such an incredible step forward in science and indeed in history, I think it is also wonderful that at the forefront was someone young and also a woman. I just love the comparison image that was shared all over the internet of both Katie Bouman with her stacks of hard drives, side by side with MIT computer scientist Margaret Hamilton with her stacks of books containing the code that helped put a man on the moon. I hope this encourages more young people that it doesn’t have to be the people that have been working in science for decades that can make incredible discoveries, and I also hope it encourages more women and girls to take an interest in science and recognise that they can pave the way in science too. The combined images that has gone viral on Twitter. Original source unknown.

AMAZING WOMEN: This year I was really inspired seeing a group of incredible women who ran the vitality 10k run in London in their underwear to promote body positivity. They were led by author and journalist Bryony Gordon and plus-size model Jada Sezer, both of whom are mental health and body positivity campaigners and who also ran the London Marathon in their underwear last year. They decided to encourage women to join them in “celebrating you” and running/jogging/walking the 10k in their underwear, not only to prove that women of any size can run, but also that every woman no matter their shape, should be proud of what their body has achieved. I kept up with everyone’s Instastories on the day and just seeing all their beaming faces as they crossed the finish line (many of whom had never run before) was enough to make anyone want to strip down to their undies and start running.Just some of the women who took part in the ‘Celebrate You’ campaign at the Vitality 10k. Image taken from Bryony Gordon’s Instagram.

Alongside the list here are a few of the things that are injecting some happiness and positivity in my life right now in case you need a little extra in your life too:

Something to watch: Well I’m now back in the UK so I’m having a great time watching all the shows I couldn’t get on Netflix whilst living abroad and on UK catch up TV channels. It was recently announced that there is going to be a Christmas episode of Gavin and Stacey so in preparation I’m going to watch them all over again!

Something to listen to: Spice Girls. I recently saw them in concert and it was incredible so now of course their music is playing no matter what I’m doing!

Something to read: I’m currently reading ‘Body Positive Power’ by Megan Jayne Crabbe and it’s really making me think differently about my own body but is really educating the reader about the ins and outs of the diet industry (and some of it is shocking!)

Somewhere to go when you’re feeling a little low: A local cafe. Take a book, have a coffee, eat a wedge of cake; step away from whatever you’re doing for a while and feel better/more ready to start again after a break.

So there you go. A longer list this time, but hopefully with a few extra goodies. I will hopefully manage to keep up with the blogs a lot more now I’m in a bit of a better headspace.

**Please note: Every effort has been made to provide the right and appropriate links to all sites mentioned or used for this post and that any quote used from an additional sourced has been referenced appropriately with a clickable link provided. I will be happy to correct any link or reference that may be incorrect or faulty and add in or remove any references or links, should it be required or at the request of the source.